Autumn Study Day 2018 October 17th: Visit to Cannon Hall, Barnsley and Cusworth Hall, Doncaster. An interesting day has been arranged visiting Cusworth Hall near Doncaster and Cannon Hall near Barnsley including coach travel, a light lunch and two private tours. Cusworth Hall is a Grade I Palladian house built for Wil-liam Wrightson 1740-44 by the local architect George Platt. It stands in listed parkland created by Richard Woods in the style of Capability Brown in a commanding position over-looking Doncaster. The property was mentioned in the Do-mesday survey but there had been settlement here from the Anglo-Saxon period. James Paine, who was working nearby at Sandbeck and Nostell, added two handsome wings for a library and a chapel with sumptuous rococo plasterwork by

Joseph Rose and murals by Samuel Wale, an associate of Francis Hayman. Other interiors have exceptional chimney pieces and joinery by Yorkshire craftsmen. The Battie – Wrightsons, like the Spencers of Cannon Hall, were signifi-cant clients of the fashionable furniture suppliers Wright & Elwick of Wakefield. After a celebrated sale in 1952 the house was bought by Doncaster Council and extensive restorations and refurbish-ment took place between 2002-2007 with a grant from the HLF. Cusworth is run as a social history museum and there is an enchanting collection of objects, costume and photo-graphs representing the heritage of South Yorkshire. The core of Cannon Hall, Cawthorne, near Barnsley, was built in the late 17th or early 18th century for the Spencer family, possibly by John Etty of York. It was extensively

Drawing of a French Commode Table, engraved as plate XLVII for the Director (1754), ‘…with doors or drawers in front, and drawers at each end; the middle part may be made with sliding shelves to hold cloaths. This Commode, made by a skil-ful workman, and of fine wood, will give great satisfaction; the feet at each end are different for better choice. A is the half

plan; B the end drawer, &c. the mouldings are at large on the right hand’. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers

SOCIETY EVENTS AUTUMN 2018

EVENTS ELSEWHERE

‘Chippendale’s Director: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker’, May 14, 2018–January 27, 2019, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, Galleries 751-752, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Galleries of Eighteenth Century American Art, Floor 2 The exhibition will combine the original preparatory drawings from the Chippendale workshop with a selection of British and American furniture inspired by Chippen-dale’s designs and aesthetic. The legacy of Chippendale will be presented through rep-resentations in portrait painting and revival pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries.

‘Chippendale, the Man and the Brand’, and ‘Interior Worlds’ continue at Nostell Priory, Wakefield until 4th November.

'Matching Patron and Maker' an exhibition of virtuoso carved music stands by mem-bers of the Master Carvers' Association as part of the Chippendale 300 celebrations, and 'Chippendale and the Yorkshire Craftsmen' at Burton Constable, continue until 2nd September

‘Matching Patron and Maker’ transfers to the Music School Foyer, University of Leeds during the Leeds Piano Competition (ticket holders only) 9th - 14th Sep-tember.

Continuing Exhibitions

New Displays

Symposia ‘And None Shall Compare: Thomas Chippendale’s Genius’ 7th September, Firle Place, near Lewes, Sussex. Tickets still available https://www.ciceroni.co.uk/tours-study-days/chippendale-experts-firle The day will concentrate on Chippendale’s commission for Lord Melbourne’s two great houses, Brocket Park, Herts and Melbourne House, Piccadilly, and on current research into the two

Harewood and Paxton – Chippendale Commissions Compared’ 29th September at Paxton House, Berwick-upon-Tweed 10.00 – 5.30. Tickets still available www.paxtonhouse.co.uk/event/harewood-and-paxton-chippendale-commissions-compared-symposium

spectacular ‘Panshanger Cabinets’.

‘The Shakespeare of English Furniture: Designs by Thomas Chippendale’ 28th August to 17th February 2019, Victoria and Albert Museum, Gallery 102 and National Art Library Landing. The displays will include drawings for the 3rd edition of

the Director and also a series of publications associated with Chippendale and his contemporaries. There will be clips from a silent film made in the 1920s when interest in Chippendale’s work was having a revival.

Festive Lunch and visit – 13th December 2018. Details in the next Newsletter

enlarged and altered by Carr of York in the 1760s with the aim of displaying Grand Tour treasures brought back by John Spencer. He was recorded visiting Chippendale’s and Cobb’s workshops in London with his architect to discuss the furniture for the drawing room. Highlights of the interiors include the rococo plasterwork in the dining room with musical instruments and in the library with hunting and country pursuits. The panelled Oak Room dates from the late 17th century while the ballroom reflects the interests of the late pre-Raphaelite John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope. Cannon Hall is run as a decorative art museum by Barnsley Coun-cil and has built up a remarkable collection of 18th century furni-ture, art pottery including de Morgan and Moorcroft ceramics. It is also the home of the exceptional Harvey Collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Golden Age. The Georgian walled garden is not to be missed including the impressive Victorian glasshouse in which is the original Cannon Hall Muscat grapevine.

See the last page of the Newsletter for pictures of the two Halls. The cost is £47.50 per person to include Britannia Coach Travel, entrances and tours of both houses and a light lunch at Cannon Hall, payable by 21st September 2018.

Please apply for places on the accompanying form and send with your cheque, made payable to the Chip-pendale Society, to Cathy Lambert, Honorary Events Secretary, The Chippendale Society, Nesfield Hall, Nes-field, Ilkley, LS29 0BN.

Please indicate where you will be picked up by the coach and also any dietary requirements.

Any queries, contact Cathy Lambert on email: cathylambert2@gmail.com or by phone: mobile no 07950 206002.

For other events please see the Chippendale 300 website http://chippendale300.co.uk/

We were greeted at Scampston by Sir Charles Legard who introduced us to the house and its history under Gainsborough’s portrait of the benign Sir William St Quintin. The present house, replacing and partly incorporating an earlier one, was built c1800 by Thomas Leverton, with its main feature a central three story semi-circular bow rising to a dome, and intended to fit with the existing Capability Brown park. It came to the Legard family by marriage two generations ago and Sir Charles and Lady Le-gard completely renovated the house to the highest standards in the 1990s, retaining some of the mid 19th century decoration. The suite of ground floor rooms opens into a classic Regency enfilade of drawing room, library and dining room all enjoying floor length windows with views into the park. They contain much Continental furniture (Dutch, Italian and particularly French pieces including a transitional style Oeben commode) together with exceptional porcelain from the Hillingdon Collec-tion which again was inherited through marriage. Of the English furniture we were particularly stuck by the suite of lyre back dining chairs (two arm-chairs and six surviving side chairs), clearly a Chippendale model derived from the pattern first used at Nostell Priory c1767, as well as a big suite of ladder back chairs with beautifully carved rocaille decoration in the piercings, and a group of Gothic splat back parlour chairs. A mongrel side table in the dining room incorporated Gothic and neo classical motifs with late C17 style classical features. In the library a very fine rich rosewood shaped side table with gilt brass capi-tals, gallery and other ornaments suggested the early Regency style of John McLean. Above the chimney was an exceptional early rococo carved mirror frame (perhaps originally a picture frame) in the style of Matthias Lock. Throughout the house the superb paintings, including several by Gainsborough, were matched by equally beautifully carved and gilt frames.

After lunch at Burton Agnes we enjoyed a memorable tour of this exceptionally interesting Prodigy House by Robert Smythson, led by a highly knowledgeable guide who kindly allowed us over the ropes and was a mine of information about the collecting habits of the late Marcus Wickham-Boynton whose personality pervades the house today. It is probably the most elaborately decorated Jacobean house in Britain in terms of carved and modelled figurative ornament found in several overmantels, panelling and the Great Hall screen and chimney piece. The iconography and sources have been unravelled over the years, notably by Anthony Wells – Cole, who has pinpointed the designs to a group of mainly datable Flemish engraved de-signs and suggested a workshop also operating in the Newcastle area. A particularly fine Nonsuch chest reflects this period while a group of draw tables and court cupboards were more likely to have been bought – together with many other furnishings in the house – by Mr Wickham-Boynton from Yorkshire country house sales from the 1940s to 60s.

The early 18th century saw some significant alterations in the house, notably the creation of a drawing room clad in coroman-del lacquer – the sole survivor in Britain of a genre which enjoyed a short popularity in the first quarter of the 18th century. It was instruc-tive to see how a 12-leaf screen had evi-dently been cut down the centre in order to display the front – a grand processional scene – on the wall opposite the window, and the back – a gar-den scene – on the wall opposite the chimney. A miniature folding firescreen and a group of Chinese Chippendale arm-chairs with fretwork lattice backs based almost precisely on a design from Plate XXVI of the 1754 Director (XXIV of the 1762 edition) completed the effect. A serpentine fronted side table with a marquetry top with floral sprays and musical in-struments – almost identical to an example at Temple Newsam tentatively attributed to Langlois – was noted. In the Dining Room a long suite of splat back parlour chairs is said to have come from the Sitwell house in Scarborough, while a number of vase shaped splat back chairs sporting a single tassel and elaborate blank fret Gothic legs suggested a provincial origin. A more sophisticated mahogany side table with Chinese fret brackets in the window bay may have been part of a chinoiserie campaign like the aforementioned suite of Chippendale chairs. A single ladder back chair with rocaille ornament in the piercings was very similar to the suite seen at

Scampston and was proba-bly from a larger group. In the Upper Drawing Room were a number of later 18th century pieces suggestive of Ince and Mayhew, including a suite of elegant but perhaps crudely executed French-style armchairs, originally japanned, a bow fronted commode and two small side tables supported by brackets, the former perhaps partly veneered in bois sat-iné, and a fine but much worn Pembroke table, and a serpentine marquetry chest of drawers, said to have come from Prior Park, Bath

Visit to SCAMPSTON HALL AND BURTON AGNES HALL 21st May 2018

The Great Hall at Burton Agnes

The Chinese Room, Burton Agnes

and bought at Malletts. An earlier and extremely pretty rococo papier maché pier glass had been recently restored. The adjoining rooms have exceptionally finely carved panelling (including one with early C16 linenfold and profile heads re-moved from Kilnwick Hall) and plasterwork ceilings. They con-tain suites of fine tall cane chairs of c1700, some probably origi-nally japanned. One suite had particularly elegant square-profiled back posts terminating in outward curving scrolls, pierced horsebone legs, and crests and fore rails with echoing scrolled carvings. The early C18 bed came from Sewerby Hall. The famous collection of C20 British art is found throughout the house but particularly in the Long Gallery on the top floor, fully restored by Mr Wickham-Boynton in the early 1970s. In 1947 he

had bought the two mid C18 Chinese lacquer cabinets on stands originally in the Gallery at Temple Newsam at the Hickleton sale in 1947 and they used to occupy the walls either side of the Venetian window on the east side. These were re-turned to their former home in 1996 and they have been re-placed by inspired new commissions from John Makepiece including a group of three pieces on the theme of trees.

This most enjoyable day was blessed by glorious warm sun-shine. It was the inaugural trip arranged by our new Events Organiser, Cathy Lambert, to whom we are most grateful.

Report by James Lomax

The Chippendale Society is seeking a Newsletter Editor. This post is currently filled by David Bower, in addition to his role as Membership Secretary, but as he is shortly to step down from both posts the Committee would now like to create a new stand-alone post of Newsletter Editor.

The Society usually produces three Newsletters per year with text and images supplied by various contributors. The Edi-tor’s job is to collate and lay out text and images to create the Newsletter. The main qualification necessary for the job is familiarity with or a willingness to learn a simple program such as Microsoft Publisher, which allows layout to be done on screen and then converted to pdf for circulation by email.

USE OF EMAIL Please help us to keep costs to a minimum by requesting that the Newsletter be sent to you by email in future.

New editor required for the Newsletter

In addition, a small number of members still receive the Newsletter by ordinary mail.

The Newsletter Editor would become a member of the Com-mittee of the Society. Committee meetings take place either in Otley or Leeds three times a year in addition to the AGM. All proceedings to do with the Newsletter take place on screen, online or by post, so that distance from Otley/Leeds need not be a problem.

Anyone interested in taking on this role should contact David Bower by email at dib.chippsoc@enterprise.net for further information.

Copies of Chippendale’s Director: a Manifesto of Furniture Design, by Morrison H. Heckscher, a 48pp booklet published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York are still available from the Society cost £15.00 plus £3.50 p&p. Please send your cheque to the Hon Curator, The Chippendale Society, Temple Newsam House, Leeds LS15 0AE.

Top left, Cannon Hall Bottom left, Cusworth Hall Right, Cusworth Hall Chapel